Published Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1998
Sharon's first ambulance service is gone. The business — which began as a service station in 1941 — was sold to Gold Cross Ambulance Service in 1986, said its retired owner, James R. Watson Jr. He took it over from his father, James R. Watson Sr., who founded the ambulance service, service station, and auto wrecking business.
Two years ago, the Shafran Building, which also was known as the 811 Building, and the ambulance service-service station were razed, making room for a modern Rite Aid pharmacy at 813 E. State St., Sharon.
Monday, memories of the two buildings were rekindled as plaques were dedicated in the Sharon pharmacy's entranceway.
The plaques consist of pictures depicting Watson Ambulance and the Shafran building and descriptions of the businesses. They tell visitors that, once upon a time, they were there.
"They were gone in a couple of days with a wrecking ball. We don't want the thoughts of those buildings to happen that way," said Joe Shafran, a Sharon native whose late father, Louis "Louie" Shafran, built the building in 1950 to house the Buhl Station Post Office.
Ambulance sirens were once shrieking as doors to the post office and Social Security Administration squeaked open and close, Shafran said.
Shafran, who now runs his own public relations firm in Annapolis, Md., and is heading up a oral history project in Mercer County, urged other current and former Shenango Valley business owners to put up similar historic markers. They would show what sort of business or building once stood where a modern business now operates.
Shafran thanked Rite Aid managers, who permitted the Shafran and Watson families to hang the plaques.
The plaques stimulated a memory in Sharon Mayor Robert T. Price. He said he remembered walking past Watson's Ambulance and the Texaco station on the way to school.
"We just take things as they come," said Pauline Watson, widow of the elder Watson.
